Rule of Benedict 25
April 5, 2009
Chapter 4:10-19.
To deny yourself, in order to follow Christ (Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23). To chastise the body (1 Cor 9:27): not to seek after delicate living; to love fasting. To relive the poor; to clothe the naked, to visit the sick (Matt 25:36), to bury the dead. To help in affliction; to console the sorrowing.
Comments: Benedict saw that at the heart of life with Christ is Christ himself. When we know this and know Christ himself, nothing remains as is. The breaks of life as we know it come to a screeching halt; a great reversal is activated. The first? Last! lose it? Gain it! Dying? To be with Christ! Poor? Inherit the kingdom!
For Benedict this is intentional. It is realized and actuated by “habits of love”: Prayer, fasting, almsgiving. Norvene Vest says: prayer, because that is how we come truly to know and be nourished by Christ. Fasting and other such bodily disciplines to train our bodies as servants and fellow workers, rather than as instruments so delicate as to lack the capacity to serve wholly. Almsgiving and service to the sick or afflicted in order to discipline our spirits toward generosity and habitual self-giving”. This great Jewish Triad was important for Jesus and the way he did life day in and day out. Following him implies it is also important for us.
Lectio: Daily little acts of submission and obedience are better than heroic or extreme behaviors periodically.
Prayer: May this reality of Christ’s life so invade every nook and cranny of my bodily existence. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Are you convinced that following Christ or living a Christ-centered life demands by necessity a life of denial?
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Thanks so much to Georges, Brad, Jamie and Paul for what you post on this blog. You are a blessing to me; I visit here daily.
I am enriched by your emphasis on so many of the “old ways” of walking with God. Trying to become a more missional christian sounds to many (as it did to me) like moving on to a “new practice” but the more I learn the more I see it is actually returning to the “old ways” of so many who have gone before us.
Thanks for encouragement, Jerry.
I usually write something about being missional on Thursday. This post could have fit there perfectly and you picked up on that by realizing that the ancient missional paths described here by our ancestors in the faith have a lot to say to us today.
The movement our Lord started has never expanded and is not expanding now where it is not being missional. Benedict picked up on that with his little band of cloistered followers of Christ. We have the impression that cloistered Christians are navel gazers. Not the Benedictines. Most monastic communities are involved in the communities where they are. This is not something we can say of all churches!